Victory in Europe Day

Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allied Powers at the end of World War II in Europe. On 7 May 1945, the Germans signed the act of military surrrender in Reims, France, and the final surrender was signed in Berlin on 8 May, formally bringing the war to a close. From Moscow to Los Angeles, people celebrated the German surrender. In England, crowds massed at Trafalgar Square and up to the Mall in Buckingham Palace, where King George VI of Britain, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill greeted the celebrating civilians; United States president Harry S. Truman, on whose birthday the surrender occurred, dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 12 April; and people in the Soviet Union celebrated the surrender a day later, 9 May, as it was 9 May in Moscow time when the German surrender became effective. V-E Day was the formal end to the war in Europe, although it was not until 12 May 1945 that the Germans in Prague, Czechoslovakia surrendered, and the Ustase continued to fight against the Yugoslav Partisans at Odzak until 25 May. Nevertheless, V-E Day remained a symbol of the victory of democracy over fascism in the war, and it was a day of worldwide jubilation.